Gingrich: Obama's big debt limit deception

By Newt Gingrich, CNN Contributor

Updated 3:47 PM ET, Fri September 20, 2013

Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – A Park Service police officer stands guard in front of the Lincoln Memorial during a partial shutdown of the federal government in November 1995. Many government services and agencies were closed at the end of 1995 and beginning of 1996 as President Bill Clinton battled a Republican-led Congress over spending levels.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – An employee hangs a sign on the door of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington on November 14, 1995, marking the start of the government shutdown.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – A tourist peers out a ferry window at the Statue of Liberty on November 14, 1995, as a small group of visitors wait on the dock to board the vessel. No passengers were allowed off the boat as both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were closed after federal workers were sent home.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee holds up a chart showing the differences between Republican and Democratic budgets as Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, left, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole stand by during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – A police officer walks through the empty Statuary Hall in the Capitol on November 15, 1995.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – The national debt clock in New York is stopped during the government shutdown in November.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – President Clinton speaks about the federal budget impasse from the Oval Office on November 16, 1995. The first part of the budget shutdown ended on November 19 when a temporary spending bill was enacted. But Congress failed to come to an agreement on the federal budget, leading to a second shutdown starting December 16.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – UPS workers deliver letters to members of Congress on November 28, 1995. The letters were written and sent by members of the Coalition For Change, a nonpartisan organization devoted to balancing the budget.

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Photos: The last government shutdown18 photos

The last government shutdown – A speaks to demonstrators at the Capitol Rotunda on December 7, 1995. Evangelical leaders from around the country held a prayer session to call on legislators to treat the poor justly during welfare reform and budget negotiations.

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The last government shutdown – House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Livingston, right, holds a "closed" sign outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington on December 18, 1995.

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The last government shutdown – A security guard informs people that the passport office is closed at the Federal Building in Los Angeles on December 18, 1995.

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The last government shutdown – Rep. John Boehner dumps out coal, which he called a Christmas gift to President Clinton, during a news conference about the federal budget on December 21, 1995.

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The last government shutdown – Karen Bishop chains herself to colleagues during a rally at the Federal Building in San Francisco on January 3, 1996. The workers claimed they were in servitude to the government as hundreds of thousands of federal employees were either furloughed or had to work without pay.

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The last government shutdown – Food service employees at the Veterans Hospital in Miami line up to receive food rations on January 3, 1996. Many federal employees faced financial hardships during the shutdown.

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The last government shutdown – Tourists line up outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington on January 5, 1996. It was one of the few government buildings open during the shutdown thanks to the assistance of private funds.

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The last government shutdown – People trying to apply for visas at the U.S. consulate in Paris on January 5, 1996, are told that the building is closed because of the U.S. budget crisis.

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The last government shutdown – Rep. Thomas Davis III, R-Virginia, attends a rally in Washington on January 5, 1996, urging the end of the government shutdown.

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The last government shutdown – Tourists view Yosemite National Park in California after it re-opened on January 6, 1996. Early that morning, President Clinton signed Republican-crafted legislation to restore jobs and provide retroactive pay to government workers while he and Congress continued negotiating how to balance the federal budget.

Story highlights

He says president is wrong in saying Obamacare isn't relevant to the budget

Gingrich says there's long history of presidents negotiating with Congress on debt limit

Gingrich: If Obama can negotiate with Putin and al-Assad, he should negotiate with Congress

As a historian and a former speaker of the House who negotiated successfully through two government shutdowns, a successful welfare reform bill, the first tax cut in 16 years and four balanced budgets, I am offended and a little frightened by President Barack Obama's deliberate dishonesty about the debt ceiling.

On Wednesday, speaking to the Business Roundtable, Obama said:

"You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt being used to extort a president or a governing party and trying to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and nothing to do with the debt."

This is just plain false, and he knows it. That he would say something so factually false in a prepared text is very worrisome.

Newt Gingrich

First of all, issues such as Obamacare don't have "nothing to do with the budget" and the idea that it is unusual for Congress to bring them into the debt ceiling debate is absurd. Far from having "nothing to do with the budget and nothing to do with the debt," Obamacare is a major part of the budget, and it is now projected to cost twice what the president promised.

The president's historical claim is completely wrong, as well. Let's set the record straight.

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Under President Ronald Reagan, one of the most important changes in spending, the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, was attached to a debt ceiling provision.

Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton also signed debt limit increases tied to spending agreements. When we reached a deal to balance the budget 1997, it included a debt limit increase.

As Speaker John Boehner pointed out, "In fact, every major effort to deal with the deficit over the past 30 years has been tied to the debt limit."

Of course, Obama himself has signed a debt ceiling increase with amendments attached to it.

This is not a dictatorship. The president cannot dictate. The structure of our Constitution requires negotiations between the president and the Congress to get anything done.

It is very troubling that the president would adopt a "no-negotiation" strategy and then deceive the American people about the history of negotiations on the debt ceiling. It is especially bizarre that Obama eagerly negotiates with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad but considers the elected leaders of the American Congress unworthy negotiators.

As Reagan said in his 1964 speech "A Time for Choosing": "The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Anyone who tells you tying the debt ceiling increase to spending agreements is unprecedented knows something that just isn't so.